739: That Dec 16, 2016

It would certainly be insulting to refer to someone as 'it' instead of 'he', 'she' or some other preferred pronoun, so it should then seem strange that, 'that' is often used instead of 'who' when referring to a person, introducing a subordinate clause, e.g. "She's a woman that loves to read". That is also used for inanimate objects, and necessary when referencing the subject of the clause. There is more information on the difference between 'that' and 'which' here. This confusion has existed since the 11th century, and would no longer be due to applying 'that' as it would have been used for inanimate objects: this is a manner of speech with history.